Wednesday

Well we awakened to cool temps and skies that had broken clouds; but no rain or fog. After 2 days of the wet stuff we were ready to dry out and it did with a slight breeze and temps which may have reached the high 60's. After our quiet times and a bowl of boring oatmeal I headed out to check on the gardens. The grass was still wet from the night before, plus once again there was a heavy dew overnight. I had to wear my gum boots as the grass was that wet.

I started the washing machine for Nancy then ventured out to check on the yard. There was pine cones everywhere so I began picking them up to the tune of 5 gallons buckets of them, eventually dumping 4 full buckets at the fire pit to be burned at a later date. Neighbor Gerald came by with his box blade and tractor leveling out the driveway that washed from the gully washer rainfall of yesterday. Nancy wanted to get a few things from the grocery and I wanted to return some library books that would be due on Thursday so we headed to Sparta. I found 2 books by Greg Ilies I haven't read yet, so of course I checked them out and Nancy found a couple of Debbie Macomber books as well. It was going on 11 AM so we decided to head to the Mustard Seed for lunch but first she wanted to check on the clothing in the first part of the store. She tried on a couple sweaters but decided they were just to expensive at even the mark down prices.

We will have our friends Dan and Carol bring a jacket and some of her winter clothing from Florida when they come in October. Wow right in the middle of this post Skype informed me that Halley Jo Dillon was on line so I called her and we spoke with her in Woodstock, Va. and with her mom and dad as well. She is now stationed in Colorado, still in the Army as a nurse. She has to leave on Friday to head back. I love this new technology.

Well after a nice chat with her I'm back to downtown Sparta. Lunch was fab with creamy chicken enchilada soup and a wrap of spinach, turkey, ham, cheese and bacon. After eating we stopped off at the grocery for a few items before heading back to the cabin. There was enough coolness in the air to make long pants a necessity plus it kept away the irritating gnats and skeeters. We headed out for a daily hike to the top of the mountain and noticed lots of tree limbs down along the way. One was so large on the back road it was all the two of us could do, to move it onto the shoulder. Also we noticed the flag pole at our friends, Joe and Jetta's place was damaged. The flag was still attached but it seems the pole was shortened.

After the hike I picked up 4 trash cans of sticks and small limbs that had blown down in our backwoods yard and piled them up for kindling. It was just so beautiful outside and in the direct sunlight it was actually very toasty. Nancy put on a pot of stuffed green peppers in the oven for supper and we invited our "mountain mom" Helen to join us as her brother Joe left this morning for Tennessee. He will be gone for about a week or so and eventually is heading to the panhandle of Florida with his daughter and family on vacation.

Well dinner was fab and after the cleanup I headed out to destroy another underground nest of yellow jacket bees with a gas cocktail. They very nearly got me a couple days ago while I was looking for fishing worms. I'm still ticked at the last one that stung me on the finger about a week ago. I forgot too mention on yesterday's post that grandson Gabriel was 2 years old on Tuesday. He had his party last Saturday and had a great time with lots of kiddos and the pictures were great as well. Well that's about it for the day, LATER